Marshall Scouts to attend National Jamboree

MARSHALL – Marshall area Boy Scouts lent a helping hand at the summer mini-carnival at True Value Hardware on Thursday to raise money for a trip to the National Boy Scout Jamboree.

“They are a super help,” said Cookie Cooreman, events coordinator at True Value, “and it costs a lot of money to send them.”

Nine Scouts from the Sioux Council Troop 238 will be going to the 18th National Jamboree in West Virginia in July. National Jamborees are held every four years. This year will be the first in the new permanent location at the 1,000-acre Summit Bechtel Reserve site. At least 40,000 scouts are expected and perhaps as many as 50,000.

According to Andy Claude’s father, Contingent Scoutmaster Chad Claude, True Value asked the Scouts to come and oversee the games and bounce houses and are donating the proceeds of the food sales to help pay for the trip.

“Nine Scouts and me will be going to the National Jamboree,” said Andy Claude. “Every four years we have this opportunity.”

A jamboree is a chance for thousands of Scouts from all around the country and abroad to get together. The origin of the word is unknown, but predates Scouting. It’s original meaning was “a rowdy, boisterous gathering.”

“We’ll be doing a lot of stuff,” said Scout Sam Prorok. “Fishing, mountain climbing and white water rafting.”

Scouting legend has it that when Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of world Scouting was asked why it’s called a jamboree, he answered, “What else would you call it?”

The first World Jamboree was held in the United Kingdom in 1920. The first National Jamboree in America was originally planned for 1935, but was canceled because of a polio epidemic.

But in 1937, the Jamboree was held on the Washington Monument grounds, attended by 20,000 Scouts and polio survivor President Franklin D. Roosevelt.